This invention relates to a cutting apparatus for a cloth spreading machine, and more particularly to a knife guide mounted on the cloth spreading machine cooperating with the cutting apparatus.
Transversely reciprocable cutting apparatus for cutting webs of material, such as cloth, are known in the art as exemplified in the Castricum U.S. Pat. No. 1,730,560; and are known in combination with cloth spreading machines as exemplified in the Sayles U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,670,040 and 2,727,571; and in the Deichmann U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,094,319 and 3,233,488.
Although, in each of the Sayles and Deichmann patents the rotary disc blade is mounted to travel in a horizontal plane, that is the blade rotates about a vertical axis, to cut the vertically depending cloth, no practical and effective means is shown for firmly gripping and holding the cloth web in place as the rotary knife cooperates with the knife guide.
Furthermore, it is more difficult to cut stretchy or thin materials, such as tricot, "Qiana" and "Ultressa". Conventional means for applying tension to such thin materials are useless since the inherent resilience or "stretchiness" of the material neutralizes the applied tension. Consequently, the stretchy fabric must be cut in a free, floating, or relaxed condition.
The present method of cutting such stretchy mateial is with a transversely traveling, rotary knife, rotating at substantially higher R.P.M. than normal for cutting regular cloth. The increased speed of the rotary cutter is obtained by the introduction of additional gears in the transmission, which makes the cutting apparatus heavier and more expensive. Furthermore, the higher speed rotary knife is obviously more dangerous, requires more time in acceleration to top speed and deceleration to its stopped position, and is prone to excessive wear, damage, and down-time.